


For Want of a Friend

by LittleMajorMinor



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Fluff and Humor, Gen, What-If, also a little angst because dear lord they're just children let them rest, rated teen because erik is an angry stabby young man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 05:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMajorMinor/pseuds/LittleMajorMinor
Summary: On the second anniversary of his liberation from Auschwitz, 16-year-old Erik Lehnsherr finds a copy of himself rummaging around in his shitty hotel room.





	For Want of a Friend

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be the beginning of a story that asked what kind of person Erik would have been if he had not had to deal with the aftermath of his childhood experiences alone, and what kind of person Charles would have been if he had not been lucky enough to have Raven in his life. That story never came to be, but I still really like this part of it.

On the second anniversary of his liberation from Auschwitz, 16-year-old Erik Lehnsherr finds a copy of himself rummaging around in his shitty hotel room. 

The kind of work he’s taken to leaves Erik understandably paranoid, and even though he’s confused as all hell at the sight, the bits of metal he’s left strategically hidden around the room immediately rise to wrap around the arms and legs of his body double. He – No, They – Let out an undignified squeak as they’re lifted into the air, and dear lord they’ve even got the same voice. Erik stalks forward on legs that are still too gangly to look properly intimidating, and pastes on his best glare. 

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” He growls, and tightens the restraints just a bit for good measure. He has to work hard to keep up the angry façade, even at the absurdity of seeing his own face wince in pain. 

“I was looking for lunch.” The Not-Erik states a bit too matter-of-factly for someone who’s in danger of getting their throat slit. But then their face is dissolving, and body shrinking, until it’s not his own body casually slipping wrists and ankles out of metal cuffs that are now too large to hold them, but the body of a little girl. Her hair is bright as fire and skin blue as indigo dye. She’s also naked as the day she was born. Erik takes a step back in surprise. The metal hits the floor with a clatter. 

“And now?” He blurts and shifts his gaze as far away as nerve will allow. If the girl is at all scared of him, she doesn’t show it, but there’s a hint of awe in her strange, yellow eyes. They both understand the magnitude of this coincidental meeting. 

She takes the first step, slow and measured towards him, and then waits. A nod from him and she’s closing the distance.

“I think I’ve found something much better.” She hums in his ear. A long forgotten scrap of boyish-ness shakes off dust and threads their fingers together in promise. For the time in too many years, Erik Lehnsherr feels the corners of his mouth lift upwards in a smile.


End file.
